[Relationships between biting force and the morphology of the maxilloface]

The maximum biting force of 40 male students aged 26.1 +/- 3.9 years was assessed to evaluate the relationships between biting force and the morphology of the maxilloface. The evaluations were made using roentgenographic cephalogram measurements and oral model measurements. The results obtained were as follows. 1. The subjects who had strong maximum biting force (MBF) were those with high posterior facial height, high posterior inferior facial height, long length from the Ar-Me line to the gonion, and long length between the adhesion of the masseteric muscles. 2. The subjects who had strong MBF had a small gonial angle, and their occlusal plane and mandibular plane approached the anterior cranial base and eye-ear-plane, that is, the subjects with strong MBF were considered to be persons with a deep overbite. 3. There was a significant positive correlation between MBF and discrepancy values using oral model measurements (p < 0.01). No significant correlations were noted between MBF and the sum of teeth size. 4. There was a significant positive correlation between MBF and maximum grip strength (p < 0.01), back strength (p < 0.01) and the long jump (p < 0.05), and there was a significant negative correlation between MBF and 50m running (p < 0.01), but no significant correlations were noted between MBF and 1500m running.